11/9/12

Morgan ate seconds on oatmeal and all of her prunes at breakfast.  At lunch Morgan ate several bites of her biscuit and all of her mandarin oranges and hash brown casserole.  

Morgan and Kenzie were struggling quite a bit with getting along, so I had to separate them -- Kenzie went to the back room to play with Emily for a while.   

Morgan really didn't play then until after breakfast.  She just hung out by me and then went out with me to fix the oatmeal. She loves doing that because I always give my "helpers" a little taste of brown sugar after I put some into the oatmeal.  That was the first thing she asked after I said she could come with me.  

The kiddos were watching a crow in the big tree out of the big window and making cawing sounds.  They also banged n the window to try to scare him away, but he just waited to fly until he was good and ready -- must be taking lessons from our kiddos!  : ) 

The kiddos used the Magna doodles today and really enjoyed that.  Morgan made a mark with three bumps on it and told me "I maked a M for me".  She and Joslyn drew with them for about 20 minutes or so.  

11/8/12

Morgan ate all of her French toast and cantaloupe at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on dried mangoes and all of her squash, turkey slices and crescent roll.

We had a pretty busy morning today.  A early childhood education student was here doing an observation and checklist on our program for about 90 minutes.  She was very good about being unobtrusive, but it still changes the dynamics somewhat.  About 10 minutes after she got here, Bode's mom, Leslie, brought him and the baby (Reid) down for about the same length of time.  All of the kiddos were very excited to see baby Reid.  The four bigger kiddos followed Bode around like the Pied Piper!  It was so funny!

Then Coral only had half a day of school, so she came and ate lunch with us and will be with us the rest of the afternoon.  She just hangs out in her room during nap time so that is no issue, it just made an addition for lunch.

Morgan and several of the other kiddos were trying on all of the animal costumes again today. I really like the lion suit on Morgan!

Morgan and Joslyn were looking at their two family picture posters this morning.  Morgan was very interested in who everyone was on joslyns,   She was asking Joslyn questions about everyone, asking who they were and what her grandma's name was.  They were super engaged in it for quite a while.

The kiddos asked to "do more leaves" today so we used the last of the sticker fall items Emily's momma Cynthia donated .  They all had fun and I really enjoyed seeing who stacked them, who didn't, who chose mostly leaves and who didn't...

11/7/12

Morgan ate all her toast and a tasting bite of mixed berries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on saltine crackers and bean soup and all of her kiwi and ham.

Morgan asked "what makes a BOOM?" out of the blue today.  I was trying to think about the answer because I didn't have a frame of reference since I hadn't just heard a boom.  She then answered her own question with, "a cannon?"  Obviously she's been to at least one football game!  

Morgan put one of the little stuffed animals in the skirt of her dress while she was sitting down and flipping it up so it went in the air, like we do with the balls outside in the parachute.  

Morgan was reading books again this morning and asking me " what's this one?" for the nursery rhymes that she wasn't sure of.  Then she would sing whatever that page's one was.  

Morgan wanted music on this morning.  It is amazing how many times she announces the next song after only one little note or sound. 

Morgan, Joslyn and Kenzie were all in the igloo together.  They actually managed to play without conflict in the close quarters!  It may not be a record, but it's well above average!

Morgan and Kenzie were playing and Morgan came over to me and announced, "look at me!  I'm all dressed up like a prince". Kenzie then added that she was Cinderella.  They really had no dress ups, or any thing else different on at all.  The only thing was they both had the hoods on their dress/shirt pulled up!  Great imaginations!

Morgan was doing a great "Here we go cheerleaders, here we go!" chant.  It was complete with clapping and other body motions.  

11/5/12

Morgan ate about half of her bran flakes and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her cheese pizza and about half of her cauliflower and her tropical fruit.

Morgan was having a blast jumping off of the climber onto the bear on the mattress.  The way she jumped onto the bear was just right to really catapult her up into the air. She thought it was very fun and tried to repeat it, but it never did it quite as well.

Morgan and Kenzie were "decorating" with the animals this morning.  They were "decorating" the igloo and the inside climber/balance beam.

Kenzie kept talking about how tired she was after breakfast.  Morgan picked up on it and they started pretending to go to sleep.  They were making beds on the big bear, in the igloo, under the chair, on the couch and in the box.

Morgan was walking around when, seemingly out of the blue, she announced, "I got a call!"  She searched around until she found a phone then 'answered' it.  It cracked me up because she hadn't been playing with a phone before the 'call came in'.

She and Kenzie were trying to "make a tent for their babies".  Of course, to them that means putting everything in the box that they can get away with.

Kenzie and Morgan were really vacillating between being buddies and excited to play with each other to yelling "move back!" and wanting nothing to do with each other.  It made for quite the emotional roller coaster ride.

11/6/12

Morgan ate seconds on whole wheat bagel and all of her dried apricots.  Morgan ate everything at lunch -- tilapia, applesauce and our pea and pasta with cheese dish.  

Morgan cuddled and visited with me until I had to fix Noah a bottle.  She then read us stories while I fed him.  It was really cute.  She had chosen one of the books that has a different song on each page and she was just singing along.

Kenzie and Morgan were "having a party" with the back packs, a bunch of the food toys and several other toys, including books.  They started out on the floor, but Mia wouldn't leave them alone so they moved their party to the box and protection from those pesky babies. : ). Morgan has been more and more irritated by the mobile babies.  So far she hasn't been physically aggressive very often, just yelling at them and getting frustrated herself.

Morgan joined Kenzie in doing puzzles after Joslyn was done.  It is fun to listen to them dialogue about where the pieces go, what they needed to do to make them fit and just chatting in general.

Morgan was on the brink of a melt down three differ times, but never did have a full blown one.  She also was asleep way sooner than usual.  She is almost always the last one (or second to last) asleep and one of the first ones awake. It is amazing how many times harder morning correlate with a change in napping -- either quicker to sleep or longer nap.  

11/2/12

Morgan ate about half of her malt-o-meal and raisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate about half of her mixed fruit and all of her spaghetti and her salad with ranch.  

Yesterday afternoon Morgan and Kenzie has so much fun playing hide and seek, with Coral's help.  Coral helped them find several really good places to hide, burying them with the stuffed animals or the dress up suits.  

Morgan and Kenzie were pretending the box was their bedrooms again today.  They asked me to make them pillows and cover them up.  They thought it was funny when I used the dress up clothes to make pillows with.  

She and Kenzie were playing with the stuffed animals today and chose one small panda to be their baby.  They did this whole elaborate dramatic play with it.  First of all they each held one of pandas hand and helped him "walk" to the car to go to the doctor.  It just continued from there until they were in a storm with him getting all wet in the rain.  

Morgan has been pushing the envelope this morning with a melt down at 10:00. It's probably the culmination of a week of minimal sleep and extra activities.  After the following break and extra close supervision, including breaking into our small groups she did much better the rest of the morning.  

11/1/12

Morgan ate seconds on English muffins and all of her blueberries.  I forgot to take the blueberries out of the freezer until this morning (I usually do it the night before) and Morgan told us "they are frozen!"   Morgan ate seconds on saltines, and all of her canned chicken on saltines, canned cherries and corn.  

Morgan and Emily asked to go to the back room to play before breakfast.  They stayed back playing with the cars and then looking at books for at least 15 minutes.  

Kenzie started playing with Morgan  almost as soon as she got here.  They played for about five minutes before the was conflict and Morgan moved to the other side.  Within a couple minutes, Morgan asked to go play with "my friend, Kenzie" again.  She went over to her with hands on hips and said, "are you gonna be nice to me now?"  Kenzie put her hands on her hips also and told her "ya, will you be nice to me too?"  They just crack me up!  Talk about very similar temperaments in so many ways!  

One of Morgan and Kenzie's favorite place to hang out and play is in the corner behind the igloo.  They often take a bunch of the stuffed animals back there with them to cuddle and play with.  

Kenzie coughed pretty loudly and Morgan looked at her and said, "Wow!  Are you sick?"  Kenzie laughed and told her no.  

Morgan was pretending to talk on the phone and told the person on the other end, "oh no!  I forgot my wallet!"  When I asked her who she was talking to, she told me it was someone "at the games".  

Gary and I have decided that we have a group of five mini teenagers.  They were all sitting around with phones, speaking cell phone language (watching movies on the phone, turn it on speaker, gotta take this call, I gettin' a text...).  It just cracks me up!